Blade Network Technology has rolled out the RackSwitch G8052, a new addition to its top-of-rack switch lineup.
Blade, the server networking spinout of the former Nortel Networks, got its start making switches for blade servers from IBM and Hewlett-Packard, and it has been expanding into rack switches because not everyone will …

COMMENTS

Finally, network kit that cools properly

Congrats to Blade Network Technology for building a top of rack switch that won't completely screw up your server cooling and data centre efficiency.

Honestly how hard is it for that lot in San FranCisco to understand that servers flow air front to back and the that people don't want their server cooling messed up by the glorified patch panel at the top of the rack?

Who buys TOR 1GBe switches?

Lots of people.

Looking at Blade Network's 10GBe offering, it retails around 13K (USD) versus 6K (USD) for the mix of 1GBe and 10GBe.

This switch actually makes sense. In building a Hadoop Cloud, a node w 8 2TB SATA drives will experience a bottleneck on disk i/o before hitting a 1GBe networking bottleneck. (YMMV) but you can cheaply solve this via port bonding. Then you'll only be slow on the trunk (uplink) from rack to backbone. There the 10GB should be enough...

So the product fits an immediate need where customers can't yet justify the higher cost of switches and nic cards.